Unintentionally Sympathetic: Difference between revisions
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** Basically, the franchise does this with virtually every antagonist it has—later on you will find out something that makes you go "OK, what you did was wrong, but I understand why you did it and I can't really hate you." The only exceptions so far are Lord Tirek<ref>Who is grandfathered in as the original villain of the original MLP franchise and the Satanic Archetype of the show, and so is vanishingly unlikely to ever get a nuanced portrayal.</ref> and Queen Chrysalis.<ref>Whose subsequent appearances in tie-in comics and an alternate timeline episode were, if anything, ''worse'' than her original portrayal.</ref> Everypony else—Discord, Gilda, the Flim-Flam brothers, Starlight Glimmer, even ''Diamond Tiara''<ref>Noteworthy in that while she hardly compares in villainy to any of the rest -- she's a schoolyard bully -- she was still so hated that fans have actually praised the fanfic ''[[Cupcakes]]'' because Diamond Tiara died in it.</ref> of all ponies, have all face-turned or at least been given sympathetic backstories. The theme of the series seems to be that while genuine irredeemable evil can exist it is far rarer than we think and often the 'evil' person is just another schmuck acting in ignorance or with misplaced priorities, but is hardly beyond reaching.
*** Over in the ''Equestria Girls'' franchise we have Sunset Shimmer, who went from being the villain of the first movie to the heroine of the next two. Likewise we have Human!Twilight, the antagonist of the third movie, who was a sympathetic pawn of evil the entire time and didn't even need a face turn, just a way out of her predicament. The only exceptions so far have been the Dazzlings.
* While ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' does a good job at making the moments where Anakin briefly flirts with the Dark Side of the Force excessive and terrifying, there's one moment where fans think he didn't go far ''enough''. When he nearly beats Rush Clovis to death and terrifies Padme as a result, we're ''supposed'' to be just as disturbed as Padme is since Anakin flew off the handle and lost himself completely to violent rage. The problem is, Anakin walked in on Rush trying to kiss his ''wife'' while she was explicitly telling him to back off. In other words, he saw this slimy maggot getting rapey with the love of his life and reacted accordingly. Many viewers walked away not only completely understanding where Anakin was coming from, but seriously ''wishing'' that he could have actually killed Clovis then and there.
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